It seems as though party games will never disappear from consoles, allowing friends to silently compete and probably hate each other afterwards. The last few years of party games have offered less amusement than a game of Twister – just without the awkward sexual tension (unless you play Viva Piñata). So Nevernaut Games has finally decided to combine the two beloved subjects in the party game genre with none other than ninja, ninjas, and more ninjas. Ninjas! Does SlashDash help out the genre where Rare have done so much wrong? Or should you just play that rather personal game of Twister?
An Xbox One exclusive, SlashDash’s designed for four players to engage in various party games with competing ninja warriors by capturing flags, assassinating Shoguns, or defeating an army of enemy clones. There’s no story and there needn’t be – it’s a party game, silly. But the games aesthetics are profoundly joyous and cheerful to behold. The top down universe’s designed like a warm, colorful picture book. You feel the world’s cute sense of charm and it’s easy to easy to follow as the action progresses. Believe me, the gameplay’s a little more aggressive than the visuals make it out to be. It ain’t so cute.
SlashDash does well to deliver an energetic and fast pace fighting game that’s easy to follow and integrate into for you and your friends. You play as a number of colourful ninjas and embark on several game modes to compete in. There are four modes altogether. Deathrace has players fight one another in order to slow the progression of the opposing team’s meter, which grows while inactive. Free-for-all’s basically an open death match. Clones is the same again, but each team has five ninjas they control at once instead of one, and a shoguns that pit players to kill the opposing team’s shogun.
These are fun and greatly enjoyable game modes that are quick and easy to learn. Matches can usually be won quickly, making sure new players can join in on the fun if you’re with a large group. It’s fun, but this is also the game’s major flaw. There’s a lack of content, or better yet, game modes for what you pay for. Two of them are pretty similar, while capture the flag and the Shogun Assassin has been done before in games like Gears of War. It’s great that SlashDash offers strong game modes and some that have been only seen in bigger AAA titles that can be enjoyed again and again. At the same time, two modes are very similar and the rest have been done before. SlashDash just does little to offer new and dynamic game modes.
This means that you’ll play the same thing over and over again and by the end of the first hour, you’ve pretty much played each game mode ten times over, if you want to go that long, that is. I understand that many party games offer a few modes which are pointless or boring, but offer many more which are fun, or a couple which bring in new concepts and ideas. SlashDash’s highly causal, quick, and sadly not enough to fill the gap of a party that Super Smash Melee, Mount Your Friends, or Viva Piñata can.
It was also slightly annoying that two of the modes require four players to play – I thought they would’ve worked with just two. So if you have only two friends come over, you’re either having one spare controller on the side or you’re playing two game modes.
Your various ninja skills help in the energetic gameplay. Whether it’s teleporting, or throwing your spears, these small mechanics ensure that players are quick on the controllers to create an engaging atmosphere. There’s also a good selection of arenas to play in, each with their own characteristics and dynamic elements of interaction. This helps bring some new gameplay elements into the mix and in turn results in additional moments of conflict, which is always nice.
SlashDash‘s a strong party game with lots of fun to be had. With its major lack of content or game modes, it does mean that you might find yourself getting bored and leaving it alone until the next party. It’s fun, lots of fun, but make sure you have at least four friends handy to appreciate the full game and ones who won’t mind there only being four modes. Most games with multiplayer like Gears Of War have only four modes, but these game modes can last for hours and they’re accompanied by a campaign. Here, a few more modes would have been nice and would have been good for the whole.